De grood victims’ families oppose further freedoms

Decision to allow greater freedom ‘deeply flawed’

The families of five young people killed at a house party in 2014 are asking Alberta’s justice minister to appeal a recent decision by the Alberta Review Board.

Matthew de Grood was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Zackariah Rathwell, 21; Jordan Segura, 22; Kaitlin Perras, 23; Josh Hunter, 23; and Lawrence Hong, 27. A judge found him not criminally responsible in 2016 because he was suffering from a mental disorder at the time and did not understand his actions were wrong.

The Alberta Review Board decided this week to move de Grood from a secure psychiatric hospital in Calgary to one in Edmonton, where he could be granted unsupervised ground privileges and supervised day passes with staff or a responsible adult. It said he could eventually be placed in a halfway house with 24-hour supervision.

The families of Rathwell, Segura, Perras, Hunter and Hong said in a joint statement Friday they object “in the strongest possible terms” to any further freedoms being granted to de Grood.

“We ask for the Minister of Justice to immediately file an appeal of this dangerous, flawed, review board decision,” they said.

The family members described the NCR process as “deeply flawed.”

“No one within the process, including Crown prosecutors, government, and the Alberta Review Board, works on behalf of the victims,” they said. “We are on our own to navigate a skewed process towards the perpetrator and only public support and outrage towards the recommendations will be the catalyst to elicit change in the NCR process.”

The board’s report said de Grood’s schizophrenia and major depressive disorder are in full remission.

“It is the opinion of the board that de Grood remains a significant threat to the public were he to relapse into a full psychotic state,” it said.

“Transferring de Grood to (Edmonton) to continue his treatment is the best way of protecting the safety of the public while imposing the least onerous order upon him.”

The review board noted in its decision the victims’ families have strong views about what should happen to de Grood and agreed with the Crown’s submission at the hearing that the anger and fear were palpable.

One of the reasons for moving de Grood to Edmonton, the board wrote, is because it’s a “more benign or less toxic community environment.”

The United Conservatives also called on the province this week to review the board’s decision.